Image description: The words “The second time podcast” in black text on a purple background. There is also a sketch of a computer and mouse.
You can listen to this podcast in a number of places:
- Spotify
- Apple Podcasts
- RSS feed (to open in your preferred listening app)
- YouTube
This website is the only place which has the script for the episode.
I know some platforms and apps have automatic transcriptions but I cannot endorse AI and will not take responsibility for their accuracy.
Episode Script:
Welcome to the second time podcast. Firstly, you’ll have to excuse the noise if you can hear my fan through this episode. I have a significant intolerance to heat and Brisbane is unseasonably warm right now. I can’t turn off cooling devices to record.
This week has been filled with a lot of life stuff and not much job hunting stuff. I’m still getting interest and interviews but as I’ve said before, the recruitment processes are taking literally months, so I’m still in a position of wondering if a contract will be signed before my money runs out. Once again, I have nothing new or interesting to say on that front.
Following on from last weeks discussion of inclusion policies, I want to tell you about something that happened in this round of job hunting. Only a few people know about this, but some time has passed and it’s right to talk about it now.
A quick refresher on last week first – the main point I was making was that saying “we’re inclusive” means nothing unless you actually do things that are inclusive.
Recently, I applied for an “internal only” job. This place allows people with a disability and Indigenous people to apply for internal only jobs. It was only a short term contract, but frankly, a short term contract would be wonderful about now. A little bit of cash to keep me going while the recruitment processes take their time. The phone interview was more like an induction than an interview. A job offer didn’t immediately follow, but there was lots of language used about what date they are looking to start someone in the role. It seemed like they had decided on me, but hadn’t been given the green light to formally say anything, so they were hinting informally. I mean, that’s what you do when bureaucracy is drowning you. And it went on. And on. For about a week, I was waiting for a confirmation that I was to start this role.
At the last possible moment, a Friday afternoon, when the theoretical start date was the coming Monday, I was told that due to the short timeline, they were going with someone internal.
This is where the actioning of their inclusion policy fell down. I’m presently of the opinion that they have never hired a disabled or Indigenous person through this “internal only” recruitment process. I’m of the opinion that the bureaucracy simply did not know what to do, so they dragged it out and shoved me into the too hard basket.
This is not the first negative experience I’ve had with this organisation and their disability recruitment initiatives. So I put in a complaint. Not against the person who tried to hire me (I complimented him for doing his best to keep me informed in what was clearly a difficult internal process), but towards their entire attitude towards disability recruitment. I expressed confusion in their competency, that a large organisation such as themselves didn’t have capacity to do something quite simple such as creating a log in for a new starter in the space of a week and a half. I asked if their disability recruitment was tokenism and if they were actually serious about it.
Naturally I got a very bland reply saying they would look at timelines and of course they want to hire disabled people and please keep applying.
Which brings me to a related topic. I made this post in June 2023 and I’d like to read it to you:
It’s not polite to fake interest in a disabled person and waste their time. I’d rather know up front. It’s wrong, but fuck it. Put “no disabled people” on your job ad and don’t make me waste my time. I have limited energy. Fatigue has ruined my life. I don’t have time to play pathetic corporate games.
In the employment world, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been told to “just apply and see”. No, I don’t want to “just try”. I need to know that the place I am applying to will accommodate my needs. That is the exact same situation a non disabled job seeker has, and I have the same rights as them. It’s not up to me to do more work on this. It’s up to businesses to do more work.
So, you’d think that being turned down due to the organisation being unable to work out how to hire me would be the end of the story, right
I’m still on their “internal only” email list, and guess what? The exact same short term job was advertised again this week. They could have had me. I could have been working there. They could have avoided readvertising. The too hard basket is biting them on the ass. And the petty part of me is glad.
What did I do? I applied again. Just before I sat down to record this podcast episode, I sent in the exact same application as I did around a month ago. I wonder what will happen this time? Will they know how to hire me this time? Will they claim I don’t have the right experience? Or something else entirely?
It’s no news to anyone that I’m incredibly over all of this. There are no barriers to hiring me. I do desk job stuff. I just need to do it from my desk at home, not their desk in an office. It costs nothing to accommodate me. I can’t remove the attitudinal barriers that the employers have raised. But I’m the one who will suffer if they don’t get over it.
Links referenced in the episode:
Recorded and edited by myself, Vanessa Smith.
Intro and outro music by Ben Dawson.
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